Wrongful Death vs. Accidental Death: When Can You File a Lawsuit?

By Your Health Magazine

The devastating phone call arrives without warning, shattering your world in mere seconds. Your loved one is gone. While grief overwhelms every thought and emotion, a crucial legal distinction emerges that determines whether you can seek justice through the courts. Understanding the difference between wrongful death and accidental death isn’t just legal terminology—it’s the pathway to accountability and financial recovery your family desperately needs.

Understanding the Critical Legal Distinction

What is a Wrongful Death case? This happens when an individual’s life is lost due to the wrongful act of another who owed a duty to take reasonable care. Wrongful death attorneys stress the need to show that someone else is legally liable for the death. For instance, car accidents caused by texting while driving, medical professionals’ imprudent malfunctioning leading to death, and workplace mishaps due to breaches of occupational safety guidelines.

When Legal Action Becomes Possible

In Florida, the Wrongful Death Act sets out specific offences that may be the grounds for a wrongful death claim. This here, however, makes suing a narrow window of opportunity for some possible claimants. Only a few relatives of the deceased may sue, including relatives who were largely dependent on the deceased victim, such as spouses, children, and parents, and in some cases, blood relatives who were in some way dependent on the deceased. To make a claim, it is important to underline these four key aspects: duty of care, breach of the duty, causation, and the harm.

Proving Negligence in Wrongful Death Cases

In order to establish legal causation in a wrongful death case, there must be ample evidence supporting the argument that the defendant’s acts were a ‘but-for’ cause of the death. A wrongful death attorney gathers medical examination reports, accident reports, along with reports from the attending physicians and other experts, such as engineers, in order to prove liability. This generally involves the use of accident reconstruction experts, and in an even worse case, medical professionals who can go into greater detail on what would have happened had the proper standard of care been adhered to.

As to the proof required in civil cases involving wrongful death, civil litigation is not criminal litigation. In criminal cases, the government is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed a crime. In civil litigation cases, however, the burden of proof is lower: the plaintiff has to show by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant’s negligence was the cause of the wrongful death.

Damages Available Through Wrongful Death Claims

In wrongful death claims, compensation can be received by the surviving family members, covering economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses include funeral and internment charges, together with the total cost of the medical treatment for the deceased, as well as income lost as a result of his death. On the other hand, non-economic losses are not unlimited in scope. They refer to the sorrow of the deceased’s family; an appropriate provision on this aspect would be the amount necessary to mitigate that loss.

Conclusion

The distinction between wrongful death and accidental death determines whether family members can seek legal redress for their irreplaceable losses. ‘Legal methods for ensuring there is accountability for the death and compensation follows’ is one scenario where negligence led to a death that could have been prevented.